Samsung Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22 Plus Hands-on: Evolving the Galaxy S line for another year

The Galaxy S22 Ultra might be Samsung’s newest flagship, but it’s more representative of the Galaxy Note than it is of the Galaxy S lineup. Instead, Samsung has chosen the Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22 Plus to be the standard-bearers for the traditional Galaxy S lineup, with both offering a very similar experience at a sub-$1000 price point with a few differences between the two.

According to Samsung, the Galaxy S22 Ultra is designed for those who want the best of productivity and creativity in one device, while the Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22 Plus are designed for those who want the best in creating, viewing, and connecting. In other words, Samsung envisions the Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22 Plus are all-rounder devices for casual users, offering enough of a great experience without the hefty price tag and size of the Galaxy S22 Ultra.

It means that, unlike previous years, the Ultra is not just a better version of the non-Ultra models, but a different proposition altogether. Where does that leave the non-Ultra models then? Are the Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22 Plus smartphones worth buying? We’ve only spent a brief time with them so we’ll reserve our final judgment, but these are two smartphones that could appeal to a wide demographic.

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Samsung Galaxy S22 series: Specifications

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Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22 Plus: Design

While the Galaxy S22 Ultra design was inspired by the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, the Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22 Plus are children of the design language used in the Galaxy S21 series. The same contour-cut design means they look almost identical to last year’s smartphones, complete with the raised bevel camera surround. That’s not a bad thing, however, as the Galaxy S21 design stood out from the crowd of smartphones and the Galaxy S22 continues this trend.

Both the Galaxy S22 and S22 Plus use Corning Gorilla Glass Victus Plus, an armor aluminum frame, and vibrant color options. Like the Galaxy S21, the three cameras are arranged in a vertical array on the upper left side of the rear, which means both phones will likely wobble a little when you lay them flat on a table.

The Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22 Plus share three colors with the Galaxy S22 Ultra – Phantom Black, Green, and the gorgeous Phantom White – and instead of Burgundy like on the Ultra, there’s a beautiful Rose Gold color that’s sure to be appealing to many people. There are also color-matched Galaxy S22 cases for both devices, and if you had to pick one of the four colors, I would recommend the white color.

The mid-frame on the Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22 Plus is flatter than on the Galaxy S22 Ultra. It’s not entirely flat like an iPhone 12 or 13, but more like the iPhone 4S — if you remember that far back. There’s also uniformity to the bezels all the way around the display, which creates a more immersive viewing experience.

While the Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22 Plus design are largely the same as the Galaxy S21 series, the few tweaks that Samsung has made are welcome and ultimately, these two devices pay homage to the adage that “if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.”

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Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22 Plus: Display

Much like the Galaxy S22 Ultra, the Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22 Plus feature the best displays you’ll find on a smartphone to date. Samsung is known for screens that are vibrant, saturated, and far better than any other AMOLED display, and the Dynamic AMOLED 2x display on the Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22 Plus certainly deliver on Samsung’s display prowess.

Like previous Galaxy’s before them, the Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22 Plus both come with an adaptive refresh rate that automatically adjusts from 10Hz to 120Hz depending upon the content you’re viewing. The new Vision Booster technology uses mapping technology to measure the ambient environment and then automatically adjust the screen’s color and contrast. The aim is to ensure that you can always view bright or dark scenes clearly, even in challenging environments such as bright direct sunlight, where peak brightness alone isn’t good enough to retain viewability.

The most noticeable difference between the Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22 Plus is the size of the display. Both devices run at FHD+ resolution and the Galaxy S22 measures 6.1-inches, while the 6.6-inch display on the Galaxy S22 Plus is designed for those who want a larger experience. There is a difference in the brightness between the devices: The High Brightness Mode reaches up to 900 nits and 1,200 nits on the regular and the Plus versions respectively, and HBM under direct sunlight reaches up to 1,300 nits and 1,750 nits respectively — however, we were unable to test these modes out in our limited time with the device. These are very respectable numbers, so regardless of which one you buy; you’ll be getting the best display on a smartphone in those categories.

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Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22 Plus: Hardware

Much like the Galaxy S22 Ultra, both devices come equipped with the latest internals. But if you were hoping for S-Pen support, you’ll need to look at the Galaxy S22 Ultra. Neither of these non-Ultra devices supports an S-Pen, and neither comes equipped with one either obviously.

In the US, China, and India, the Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22 Plus are powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor which is built using 4nm fabs. In other parts of the world, both devices will be powered by the Exynos 2200 processor and unlike previous years, it seems Samsung’s own processor is more than a match for the best of Qualcomm.

The Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22 Plus both come with two storage options – 128GB or 256GB – and regardless of which you buy, you’ll get 8GB of RAM. It’s all standard fare and while it should be good enough for most people, heavy users looking for a future-proof option might want to consider the Galaxy S22 Ultra, which starts at 8GB of RAM but has options with 12GB. Both devices also come with a 4x9mm ultrasonic in-display fingerprint sensor as well as mmWave and Sub6 5G support, at least in the US.

While the similarities between the Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22 Plus are many, there are subtle hardware differences that could make a difference to your experience. The Galaxy S22 is powered by a 3,700mAh battery and only supports 25W charging, while the Galaxy S22 Plus borrows cues from the S22 Ultra with its much larger 4,500mAh battery and 45W fast charging. Similarly, the Galaxy S22 comes with Wi-Fi 6 support, while the Galaxy S22 Plus comes with Wi-Fi 6e support. The Galaxy S22 Plus also supports the UWB sharing standard, while the Galaxy S22 does not.

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Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22 Plus: Cameras

Much like the Galaxy S22 Ultra, the Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22 Plus showcase some of Samsung’s abilities in cameras but whether they’re good enough for the price point remains to be seen. That said, both do offer the trifecta of ultra-wide, wide, and telephoto cameras, unlike some of the direct competition (such as the iPhone 13 which is priced the same as the Galaxy S22).

The camera experience on both devices is identical; the top camera is a 12MP ultra-wide sensor with a 1.4µm pixel size, 120-degree field-of-view, and f/2.2 aperture. It’s the same one used in the Galaxy S22 Ultra so there’s a consistency in the ultra-wide performance across all three devices. The main camera is a new 50MP sensor with 1µm pixel size, 85-degree field of view, 23mm focal length, and f/1.8 aperture.

While the Galaxy S22 Ultra uses nona-binning technology – which combines nine pixels into one super pixel – the Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22 Plus use tetra-binning, which combines four pixels into one larger pixel. The result should be better low-light photos, although we weren’t able to test this in Samsung’s studio set up.

The Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22 Plus also share a telephoto lens from the Galaxy S22 Ultra. While this lens acts as the secondary telephoto on Samsung’s imaging king, it’s used as the only telephoto lens here. It sports 10MP resolution with 1µm pixel size, 36° field of view, 69mm focal length, and F/2.4 aperture. Most importantly, it is equipped with OIS and offers 3x optical zoom, as well as 30x space zoom. It’s not 10x optical and 100x space zoom found on the Galaxy S22 Ultra, but the Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22 Plus should offer enough zoom for most people.

The Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22 Plus also share a lot of the same camera features found on the Galaxy S22 Ultra. The new advanced auto framing feature uses AI to detect up to 10 subjects in the frame of a shot and automatically optimize the shot so everyone is in focus. The new super steady system combined with advanced OIS should mean that you can record steady and crisp videos regardless of the time of day.

The Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22 Plus come with the same Adaptive Pixel feature found on the Galaxy S22 Ultra, except it has been tweaked for the 50MP main sensor. This means the camera automatically takes a high-resolution 50MP image and the smaller tetra-binned image and then combines them to give you the best of both worlds. This should mean you can take night-mode quality photos without needing to turn on night-mode, but how well it works remains to be seen.

Overall, the Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22 Plus cameras follow Samsung’s trend of bringing the same features from its flagship Ultra camera to the rest of the series. The biggest change is the smaller 50MP sensor (vs 108MP), but even with this reduction, the Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22 Plus are both capable of the same types of shots that the Galaxy S22 Ultra can take. Of course, we’ll reserve judgment for our full review, but we can’t wait to test what these cameras can do.

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Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22 Plus: Software

All three phones in the Galaxy S22 range run Android 12 at launch, with Samsung’s OneUI 4.1 on top. This means a lot of the native Android 12 features are present including customizations such as theme colors, new privacy options, and more. On a pure software level, the Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22 Plus offer the exact same experience as the Galaxy S22 Ultra, with Samsung committed to keeping the experience consistent amongst all Galaxy devices running OneUI 4.1. Adding a cherry on top is Samsung’s commitment to providing up to 4 generations of Android OS updates for this (and other) flagship series, meaning you will get Android 16 in due course of time — these are insane promises for the Android world, and sets a benchmark that others on the non-Apple side cannot compete with.

The Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22 Plus will both be equipped with the new Samsung Digital Wallet, which is the grandfather to Samsung Pay. Designed to be Samsung’s competitor to the all-conquering Apple Wallet, the Samsung Digital Wallet is a home for your ID cards, keys, and payments. The Digital ID section can house your student ID and vaccine passes, while the Digital Key section encompasses the keys to your home, car, and office. The Payments section offers everything that Samsung Pay had to offer, but as always, the devil is in the details, and we’ll see just how capable Samsung Digital Wallet is when it launches later this year.

The Galaxy S22 series also sees Samsung and Google work even closer together to present a unified front to Apple’s vertical integration. This is a smart move as while Apple controls its hardware and software and creates great experiences, Samsung and Google only control one part each. Collaborating means we finally get Apple-like experiences on Galaxy smartphones, and this is readily apparent in the new Google Duo Live Sharing feature.

Exclusive to the Galaxy S22 range at launch, and only available on Galaxy smartphones for the foreseeable future, Google Duo Live Sharing is designed to be a competitor to the SharePlay feature on FaceTime. Google Duo Live Sharing does exactly what you think and lets you share a video, image, presentation, and more in real-time while on a Google Duo call. There are also enhancements to the Google Duo experience – again, only on Galaxy smartphones – with 1-on-1 calls now bumped to FHD resolution and group calls with up to 4 getting a bump up to QHD resolution. These screen and audio enhancements are available to all Galaxy users, although presumably, they’ll launch on the Galaxy S22 range first.

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Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22 Plus: two sides of the same coin

The Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22 Plus are interesting smartphones that present a conundrum for Samsung. It’s hard to be truly excited about them in the face of the behemoth that is the Galaxy S22 Ultra, especially as they essentially offer a trimmed-down version of the same phone without the headline bells and whistles. Yet, this does a disservice to these two devices.

The Galaxy S21 was likely the most popular of the three smartphones in the Galaxy S21 range and it’s likely that the Galaxy S22 will achieve the same this year. A starting price of $799 means it’s $400 cheaper than the Galaxy S22 Ultra for essentially a very similar experience. There are some noticeable trade-offs against the rest of the Galaxy S22 family, but these are somewhat justified when you consider everything it offers for the price.

Unlike the Galaxy S21 Plus which was felt like the ugly middle child of the Galaxy S21 range, the Galaxy S22 Plus seems to have more of a reasonable reason for existing. At a starting price of $999, it is designed to be for those who want the larger screen of the Galaxy S22 Ultra without the bulky size and heft. The Galaxy S22 Plus seems to do a better job than previous years of bridging the gap between the other two devices in the family and this year, it is likely to have more fans than ever before.

What do you think of the Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22 Plus? Let us know in the comments below, and stay tuned for our full review of the Galaxy S22 and the Galaxy S22 Plus. If you are planning to pick up the devices, check out the best Galaxy S22 series deals.